Frugal Gardening: Seed Starting Part I

Over here in SillySimple land we are all about the gardening. It is especially delightful to begin to plan the garden in the late winter/early spring when everything is still ick outside. Even before the snow has finished melting we can jump start our garden indoors by starting seeds in a window. I LOVE doing this, it makes those unbearable last few weeks of winter seem like they have an end, plus the already started plants are like a jump start for the garden come spring.

This year I have decided to see how simple and frugal we can make our garden. I picked up a few seeds and some potting soil a few weeks ago when they were on super sale at an otherwise nameless mass merchant. Now I am experimenting to find the best way to start seeds indoors.

The first seed starter attempt is an ice cube trays seed starter. Ice Cube trays are one of those throw backs to the days before automated ice makers, lots of people have them gather dust around there home (or maybe this is just my home?). If you decide you want to pick some up just for this project you may find them difficult to locate, though some can be found here, but really this is really more of a recycling project.

All in all this was a super easy project that could be completed in less than an hour, and gave beautiful results.

Here is what you need to start:

Ice Cube Trays

Drill

Potting Soil

Seeds

Water

Other random gardening equipment that makes you feel like a real gardener

Step1: Go ahead and pull out that drill (you know you want to!) and put a few holes in the bottom of the ice cube tray. You are going to want to a few holes in each ice cube pocket.

When you have finished this step, the ice cube tray will look like this:

Or for you big picture people:

Step 2: Fill the seed starter (formerly known as an ice cube tray) with a potting soil of your choice. Then following the directions for your particular seed choices go ahead and plant them in the pockets. I am no farmer, but I am pretty sure at this point you water the soil so that the little guys have a chance to germinate.

That’s all there is to it, a quick and super easy project to celebrate spring!